I-Corp: A quantum and classic bridge

Princeton University, Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is the development of technology that applies broadly to various industries actively exploring quantum solutions for their business problems. This application includes the financial services, pharmaceuticals, aerospace, transportation, and chemicals industries. Quantum computing is still at its infancy and the current device capabilities do not allow customers to adequately test the potential of incorporating quantum algorithms into their business. The hybrid platform fundamentally increases the computing capabilities of such industries to establish a better understanding of the use cases and the extent to which quantum computing improves their bottom line. This technology enables quantum hardware providers to offer more services to their customers. In fact, most major quantum hardware providers are also major classical cloud computing providers. This technology serves as the bridge between the existing classical infrastructure and the emerging quantum stack. The bottleneck cost for quantum computing is the hardware development cost. This technology is a low-cost, high-impact solution to significantly scale quantum services. This I-Corps project is based on the development of technology that helps bridge the gap between quantum computing needs and the existing, insufficient solutions used to run quantum algorithms. Quantum computing has been proposed as a new paradigm that has the potential to offer computing advantages over the classical computing paradigm. However, the two existing solutions to execute quantum algorithms suffer from apparent challenges. First, simulations of quantum algorithms using classical computers do not scale. Second, quantum computers must satisfy highly demanding hardware size and quality requirements to support practical applications. This technology is a software toolchain that combines quantum and classical computing into a concerted computing platform. The 3-step process consists of (1) cutting a large quantum program into smaller pieces, (2) running the smaller pieces with quantum computers, and (3) reconstructing the results using classical high-performance computers. Overall, the technology leverages classical tensor network techniques and quantum computing to enable the execution of quantum programs significantly beyond the capabilities of the existing stand-alone solutions. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.